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In a big lecture? Almost certainly nothing, assuming you can get into the building without a student ID. In a small class? You’d probably get found out because your name wouldn’t be on the attendance sheet. But even then, I wouldn’t be surprised if a passionate instructor turned a blind eye out of respect for your dedication to learning for its own sake.
The reason why approximately no one does this is that you don’t get a diploma out of it at the end.
Some older people do this, it’s called ‘auditing’ officially but in practice if you email the professor and they’re not super famous they’re usually happy to just invite you as a guest, you get a visitor’s badge and then walk in. Until the post-9/11 security state and the rise of the ubiquitous security door pretty much every college lecture hall in the West was completely open and you could just walk in, as I understand it.
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